RALEIGH, N.C. — There are few certainties in this life — these uncertain times, as we were saying so often not too long ago — but there’s very little you can count on as much as the Carolina Hurricanes beating up on the New Jersey Devils, and that’s Jordan Martinook scoring against them.

This one was a short-handed goal, the game-winner in a 3-1 win in Game 2 on Tuesday, a dead-eyed snipe from the left wing over Jacob Markstrom’s far shoulder that he had no chance to stop. These playoffs come at the end of Martinook’s best offensive season in his seven with the Hurricanes, and even that pales in comparison to his numbers against the Devils.

He’s played seven career playoff games against them, two this year, five in 2023. He’s scored in all of them. Four goals. Nine assists, including one on Seth Jarvis’ empty-net goal Tuesday. All this by a guy who also has scored four goals in his other 56 playoff games not against New Jersey.

Martinook can’t explain it, but he is aware.

“If you’re looking back two years ago, I knew then, that one was pretty cool,” Martinook said. “They were talking about it I feel like every chance they could.”

So why not build the whole plane out of Martinook against the Devils?

“It might just be coincidence,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But it’s not a coincidence that type of player has success.”

What if Martinook could play every game against them?

“It’d be pretty special,” Jaccob Slavin said, a master of understatement.

When you’ve dominated a team in the postseason the way the Hurricanes have dominated the Devils for the past 20-something years, weird stuff is bound to happen. Martinook morphing into Marian Hossa against them, after scoring 15 goals and 21 assists in 79 regular-season games this season, is the least of it.

Somehow, the most unflappable goalie of his generation kept unwinding again and again against the Hurricanes, and Martin Brodeur was watching from the press box again Tuesday night. The Devils gave up nine goals in six games in 2002 … and lost. They had a one-goal lead with two minutes to play in Game 7 in 2009 … and lost.

Even the six-game loss in 2001 ended up being a win for the Hurricanes in the long run; the final-minute standing ovation helped convince Rod Brind’Amour to stay. As a player and coach, he hasn’t lost a playoff series to the Devils since, going 18-8 against them in the postseason, halfway to a fifth straight series win.

The question remains open: Who hates this team and this building more, Brodeur (as a Devils player and assistant general manager) or Lou Lamoriello (as first Devils and then New York Islanders general manager)?

Weird stuff.

New Jersey was better in this one than the opener, a 4-1 Carolina win Sunday, and the Hurricanes asked for more from Frederik Andersen, especially in the third period, but this still hasn’t been much of a series. The Hurricanes have been the better team in every facet — special teams, offense, defense, goaltending — and it hasn’t been for a lack of effort on the Devils’ part. The gap in talent, with the Devils already missing Jack Hughes and now Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon, has been glaring.

That doesn’t mean the Hurricanes will continue to dominate on the road, starting Friday in Newark, but it does mean they have taken care of business so far, and while they didn’t score on the power play Tuesday, their penalty-kill was so good it more than made up for it. Martinook was a huge part of that, not only with his goal, but blocking shots and getting in the way and doing all the things he usually does that don’t include scoring on a 152-point pace.

“I can’t think about enough good things to say about that game particularly,” Brind’Amour said. “That might have been his most impactful game as a Hurricane. And he’s had a bunch, especially in big moments. Obviously the goal was huge, but if you watch, he had a ton of blocked shots, he’s out there playing at the end of the game, special play there to get the empty-netter.”

It’s just Martinook doing Martinook things. That doesn’t always mean scoring like crazy. Against the Devils, you can count on it.

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